This document compares God to a fountain of living water and human alternatives like cisterns to broken cisterns that cannot hold water. It discusses how God as the fountain is eternal and self-sustaining, while cisterns are limited and dependent on human design. Only by coming to God can people's spiritual and physical needs be fully satisfied, unlike broken cisterns of human devising.

1. Jer 2:13
13 For my people have committed two evils; they
have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
hold no water.
Jer 14:3
3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the
waters: they came to the pits, and found no water;
they returned with their vessels empty; they were
ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
Jeremiah describes the anxiety of the nobles, who
for their own survival, have sent their children to
search the cisterns for water.
Their effort was vain, neither nature nor man
made architecture responded to their cry.
Failure and disappointment greeted them at
journeys end.

2. It was a struggle for life; and death appeared to
be gaining the victory.
All their former boasting was hushed, their folly
was made clear, their sin had found them out.
They now clearly understood their fatal error was
forsaking the Fountain of Living Waters.
God is the Fountain. The arm of flesh and the
fancies of the human mind will not enable man to
live without God.
Man’s mind is a useful cistern, but fails when
asked to produce air, water, or peace with God.
Only God’s word is the fountain that supplies those
necessities.
Human Creeds and moral dogma are cisterns
quickly eroded by man’s craving for sin and self-
gratification, but Christ is the Fountain of eternal
wisdom.
Science digs a cistern of dirt seeking to satisfy
the thirst of man, but man thirsts for pure living
water, is only satisfied in Christs command “Come
unto Me and drink.”

3. Two Sources of Water
Compared
(Jer 2:13; 14:3)
Jer 2:13
13 For my people have committed two evils; they
have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
hold no water.
Cisterns are human, the Fountain is Divine notice…
I. The Design- Ps 33:9
Ps 33:9 For he spake, and it was done; he
commanded, and it stood fast.

4. Ps 36:9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy
light shall we see light.
Ps 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept
silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such
an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set
them in order before thine eyes.
Ps 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or
ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Ps 93:2 Thy throne is established of old: thou art
from everlasting.
Ps 114:8 Which turned the rock into a standing
water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in
the high and holy place, with him also that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

5. Zech 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
1Tim 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for
ever and ever. Amen.
Cisterns require filling, the Fountain is self-sustaining.
II. The Dependence- Isa 40:12
Isa 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the
span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a
measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance?
Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created
the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread
forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he

6. that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and
spirit to them that walk therein:
Isa 48:13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation
of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the
heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up
together.
Isa 48:14-16 14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and
hear; which among them hath declared these things?
The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on
Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I
have brought him, and he shall make his way
prosperous.
16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not
spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time
that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and
his Spirit, hath sent me.
Cisterns have a limit; the Fountain is unfathomable.

7. III. The Depth- Ps 40:5
Our thoughts and experiences are swayed by
circumstances, but God’s word is a never-ending
springing of living water.
Ps 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful
works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of
them, they are more than can be numbered.
Ps 92:5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy
thoughts are very deep.
Ps 92:5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy
thoughts are very deep.
Isa 55:8-9 8 For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
LORD.

8. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.
Cisterns are most full when least needed, & most empty
when most needed; the Fountain is always full.
IV. The Demand- Ps 37:25
The Prodigal found it so.
It was true at the marriage in Cana.
The wine was exhausted, but Christ and His
power were then on display.
Ps 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet
have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his
seed begging bread.
Luke 15:13-16 13 And not many days after the
younger son gathered all together, and took his

9. journey into a far country, and there wasted his
substance with riotous living.
14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty
famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of
that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed
swine.
16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the
husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto
him.
Cisterns need continual maintenance; the Fountain flows
free of man’s ingenuity.
V. The Duty- Prov 17:16
Broken cisterns hold no water. The wretched
and selfish pursuit of sin is a cistern incapable of
holding any of heavens blessings.
Prov 17:16 Wherefore is there a price in the hand of
a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?

10. Hab 2:5 Yea also, because he transgressethby
wine, he is a proud man, neither keepethat home,
who enlargethhis desire as hell, and is as death,
and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all
nations, and heapeth unto him all people:
Mal 1:4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished,
but we will return and build the desolate places; thus
saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will
throw down; and they shall call them, The border of
wickedness, and, The people against whom the
LORD hath indignationfor ever.
1Cor 1:19-21 19 For it is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the
understanding ofthe prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is
the disputer of this world? hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

11. Cisterns require a journey; the Fountain comes to you.
VI. The Draw- Jer 13:15
Jer 13:15 Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for
the LORD hath spoken.
Jer 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that
forsake thee shall be ashamed,and they that
depart from me shall be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken the LORD, the
fountain of living waters.
Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed
of me and of my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man
be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his
Father with the holy angels.
John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me.

12. John 6
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall
we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
Two Sources of Water Compared
(Jer 2:13; 14:3)
I. The Design- Ps 33:9
II. The Dependence- Isa 40:12
III. The Depth- Ps 40:5
IV. The Demand- Ps 37:25
V. The Duty- Prov 17:16
VI. The Draw- Jer 13:15